Bloody Good Book's Twitter Play

eBook publishing platform Bloody Good Book took to microblogging site Twitter to retell its first published novel, 'Brutal', in the form of tweets.

According to the IAMAI and KPMG Report 'India on the Go - Mobile Internet Vision Report 2017', internet users in India stood at over 350 million, as of June 2015. The report further projects that the number will grow to over 500 million by 2017, which includes 314 million mobile internet users as well.

It can, therefore, be assumed that e-publishing will gain popularity, and that this digital revolution will threaten book purists who regard digital and print as sharing an antagonistic relationship. But, eBook publishing platform
Bloody Good Book
(BGB) has found a new synergy between the two domains. Launched in June 2014 by author Rashmi Bansal, BGB published its first book, 'Brutal' by Uday Satpathy, on August 5 as an e-book.

Prior to the release of the print version, which will be co-published by BGB and Westland on September 5, the platform came up with an innovative way to promote the action adventure story on the microblogging site Twitter. Between August 24 and 28, the story was retold in the form of tweets by seven twitter accounts, each representing a key character.

Speaking on the activity, Bansal informs that a couple of days after the release, 'Brutal' had achieved a sales rank of 87 among the thousands of books listed on Amazon.in, and was also the No.1 action adventure on Kindle. "It was indeed a proud moment for us, a vindication of our stand that readers should have a say in what gets published," she says, adding that BGB is working hard to make its first publication a big success.

'Brutal' is currently being sold to mobile phone users on the news and books app Newshunt. A flash fiction contest on the theme 'Brutal' was also conducted, along with the Literary Symposium Desk (LSD), at IIM Ahmedabad. The winning entries were published on BGB's blog.

BGB was launched to discover and publish new authors. On this website, authors share the first three chapters of their books and readers can vote/ comment on these manuscripts. Among the most popular books, BGB editors select the one to be published. So far, the platform has received 117 manuscripts, 3357 reviews and 7494 readers.

Like all publishers, BGB depends on the sale of books for revenue. Each book is "treated like a FMCG product with a specific target audience and a unique, well-thought-out promotion plan, which goes beyond the book launch," shares Bansal.

The titles lined up next for publication include 'East or West, India is the Best', by Vinati Sukhdev, 'The Epic Indian Novel' by Deepak Kaul and 'Roomies/Foodies' by Meghana Joshi and Lakshmi Ramachandran.